Obedience training...

As I was walking my son's dog Bear, I decided to let him walk part of the way w/o being on the leash. I came to this decision b/c in my yard on a couple of different occasions he had proven to me that he could be trusted to come when called even when sorely tempted by other stimuli (namely other animals or people). Also, he is very friendly so I wasn't worried he would attack. I went for my morning walk, and decided to give Bear a chance off the leash. What happened was one really happy dog that had some freedom he had not had on a walk with me before. He was bouncing and jumping and running for joy b/c of the freedom he was partaking in. My son-in-law has a dog too, her name is Lisa and in our home with family she is a mild mannered dog. The difference between the dogs is Lisa cannot be trusted with obeying if distracted, and she is very aggressive with other animals and people she doesn't know. The direct result of this behavior is she doesn't get the freedom Bear has. It is not because I love her less, it is because she doesn't obey and I cannot trust her. So as I was noticing this I was thinking that God has probably felt the same way about me and you! If we don't have the freedom in our relationship with God we desire we might want to look at a couple of things. First, are we obeying Him, and second can we be trusted? Bear got to enjoy freedom just because he was obedient and trustworthy. How many of us in a relationship with the Almighty, can be trusted by God to be obedient? How many of us can be trusted to be kind and loving to His other kids? The sad thing is that most of the time, we are the ones that derail the freedom and blessing God desires to give to us. I want to be able to take Lisa out and have her enjoy the same freedom and happiness Bear did, but she has limited my ability to be able to bless her. How many blessings have we forfeited, how much joy have we missed just because God could not trust us? Obedience at the time can seem very stifling and limiting, and can feel the like it's the furthest thing away from what we consider freedom. When we have to lay our will down to do another's bidding, it can feel like we have no freedom, but that is not the case. Maybe we don't understand what freedom is. Freedom is not getting to do what we want to do when we want to do it. Real freedom is found in boundaries and basic laws that govern a home and society that create order. There is no freedom in chaos. God is a God of order and of freedom and these two work hand in hand. In order for a business to do well someone has to be in charge that tells others what to do, when to do it and how to do it. That brings about freedom to get a job done correctly, and doing the job right creates financial freedom b/c others want to employ your company. Real freedom is found in humble submission. Just look at Jesus, He is King of Kings and yet He humbly submitted Himself to His creation because He knew that the end result was freedom! The Word says Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered. Well, if we are following Him, we are going to have to go down that same road and learn obedience through things we have to suffer through. This obedience will bring us freedom, exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ever ask or think, just like Bear experienced. We must show ourselves faithful to obey and faithful to be trusted in order to have our lives be the exceedingly abundant life God wants for us. If Bear had not shown me he could obey in my yard, he would not have had the freedom in the town green he was given. An exceedingly abundant life just doesn't happen to us. We have a free will that needs to choose to do what God asks us to do so we can be conformed to His image. We are not supposed to get God to conform to ours, people, yet that is what most of us try to do! So in order to have that abundant life, we have to show God we can be trusted to do things His way, when He wants it done, how He wants it done, no matter how we may feel about it. More later…..v